Introduction to Ethical Theory and Moral Decision Making - I

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Introduction to Ethical Theory and Moral Decision
Making - I

• Ethics
• Study of right and wrong/good and bad
• Central Question How should I live?
• Medical Ethics
• Study of right and wrong/good and bad in medical
  contexts.

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What Do We Mean By Studying Right and Wrong?

• Two Approaches
• 1. Descriptive recording the ethical attitudes
  of particular individuals or groups
• E.g., what does the CMA Code say?
• Doesnt ask whether we should listen to those
  ethical attitudes, e.g., doesnt endorse or
  reject the CMA Code

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What Do We Mean By Studying Right and Wrong?

• Two Approaches
• 2. Normative investigating what peoples
  ethical attitudes (and actions) should be
• Some would say investigating the facts of
  morality
• Note for our purposes moral and ethical are
  interchangeable terms

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Our Project Normative Ethics

• In this class, our focus will be on normative
  medical ethics, i.e., how people should behave in
  medical situations
• A big question uhhhh....how people should
  behave in medical situations, according to whom?

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According to Whom?

• 1st answer Normative Ethics ask how we should
  behave in medical situations if we want to be
  ethically decent people.
• OK, but what determines what a ethically decent
  person is?
• 2nd Answer Shut up.

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Ethical Value and Other Values

• Ethical value is not the only sort of value
• e.g., aesthetic value
• Many would claim however that ethical value is
  the most important sort of value
• Another important sort legal value
• What is the relationship between ethics and law?

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Legal Value

• Shares many of the basic concepts of ethical
  value
• rights
• obligations
• justice
• Differs in some respects from ethical value
• sanctions and enforcement
• source

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Illegal vs. Immoral 1

• If its illegal, is it immoral?
• Ethics provides the backdrop for law. In order
  for laws to be legitimate they must ultimately be
  ethically defensible.
• Some legally prohibited things are clearly
  immoral (e.g., killing for fun), others only
  because the legal prohibition is broadly
  ethically defensible (e.g., driving when the
  light is red).

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Illegal vs. Immoral 1

• If its immoral, should it be illegal?
• Telling lies is in most cases immoral, but should
  it really be made illegal?
• Moral Value is broader than Legal Value
• Law is about not being bad.
• Morality is about being decent.

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A Third Sort of Value Relational

• What about going above and beyond the standards
  of ethical decency?
• E.g., being (particularly) kind or empathetic
• Call this Relational Value.

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Legal, Ethical, Relational
Relational
Ethical
Legal
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The Elements of Moral Discourse

• Facts, principles, concepts
• When encountering ethical disagreement or
  conflict, it is important to identify the source
  of the conflict
• Does it arise from differences about facts,
  principles or concepts?

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Facts, Principles and Concepts

• Facts the concrete details of the situation
  being considered
• Principles the moral rules or norms that are
  relevant to the situation described by the facts
• Concepts the categories that have to be
  interpreted when deciding what the facts
  principles tell us about the situation

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Playing God I

• Fact - e.g., Earl had beaten Kitty on several
  occasions
• What about Kitty was a victim of wife abuse?
• Facts are supposed to be about description, not
  evaluation
• Some, particularly in the late 20th century,
  asked whether there was any such thing as pure
  description.

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Playing God II

• Principle - e.g., Do not kill except in
  self-defence
• Next session we will consider the source of such
  principles
• Concepts
• e.g., self-defence
• victim

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Playing God III

• In an important sense disagreements about facts
  are the easiest sort of moral disagreement to
  resolve.
• Disagreements about principles may be the hardest
  sort to resolve
• What was the main source of disagreement in your
  discussion group?

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Next

• Intro to Health Law - Fri. Sept. 6
• No assigned reading
• Intro to Ethics II - Mon. Sept. 9
• E/H/HL Foundations - Section 6
• Doing Right - Chapter 1